Maiurno
Interview with Sa’id Adam, Jaafun, about the composition of the Fulɓe community in the Sudan.
Sa’id is a Pullo (sing. of Fulɓe) from the Central African Republic. He came to Sudan two years ago via Nyala. He heard of Maiurno on the radio in Sudan and he wants to study the Qur’an here and then return to the Central African Republic.
In the Central African Republic Sa’id lived in Buar. He tended livestock, either his own or his father’s. He wants to study the Qur’an out of interest, and he wants to preach Islam in the Central African Republic to those who know little about it and to non-Muslims.
Sa’id is 30 years old and unmarried. His father has long since urged him to get married, but Sa’id wanted to study the Qur’an first. According to him, the Jaafun often intermarry with other Fulɓe. However, his father and mother are both Jaafun. The wuro (hamlet) in which Sa’id lived with his father often changed in size, ranging from 5-20 houses. It was not only inhabited by Jaafun. Even though Sa’id states that there have been many marriages between Jaafun and other Fulɓe from that hamlet, the marriage practices of his siblings suggest otherwise.
Fig. 1: Marriages of Sa’id’s siblings
click to enlarge
In Maiurno, he has relatives and he found good study opportunities. All those who are Muslim and speak Fulfulde are here referred to as relatives by Sa’id. He cannot identify any closer ties to anyone in Sudan.
In Damazin, to where he travelled in order to visit a friend and fellow Qur’an student, he met some Jaafun. There are none of them in Maiurno. None of Sa’id’s family had ever been in Sudan. Not even in connection with nomadic movements. Sa’id had never left the Central African Republic before.
His father had been born in Nigeria. He belonged to the Fulɓe ladde ('bush Fulɓe') who follow the pasture conditions. That is how his father came to the Central African Republic as a grown-up herd owner.
Eastward-Drift: Nomads from Sudan bring livestock to the Central African Republic for sale. There are, however, no nomadic migration from the south. Newcomers always come from the west: from Nigeria and Cameroon. When Sa’id’s family came to the Central African Republic, there were already other Fulɓe ladde there, Ijje.
There are also Umm Bororo (Mbororo) with braids, who recently came from Chad to the Central African Republic. The Fulɓe, who have already been settling there for a longer period, are not Umm Bororo but other Fulɓe ladde: Jaafun, Ijje, Daneeji, Ba’en, Gaambiranko’en, Gootanko’en ("the united ones").
Among the Fulɓe in the Central African Republic there are Qur’anic teachers who move around with their groups of origin. This evening a bright fire serves as a reading light. The lauha (wooden tablets for writing and studying the Qur’an) here are shorter than among the Somali.
Sa’id states that the Fulɓe ladde have no camels, but use oxen as pack animals for their belongings. He heard from Fulɓe Jaafun, whom he had met in Damazin, that the area they cover during their seasonal movements comprise Yabus (Ethiopia), Juba and Dindiro (between Damazin and Kurmuk). These Fulɓe say that the civil war affects them and that they are attacked by the "Blacks".